New Zealand axes plan for WW2 comfort women statue after Japan's protest

well, just look at the US and the bazillions of ways the past of that country is obfuscated. Just ask yourself: How was Columbus celebrated for so long when every contemporary of him would have called him nothing but vile names.

Amen, New Zealand is a place for the rich like Peter Thiel to build bunkers, not for local Korean communities to build memorials.

exactly, why hasn't NZ erected a statue for the Christchurch shooter yet?

Well many New Zealanders died fighting the axis powers (later in the war the RNZAF fought in the Pacific) also were part of the allied forces after WW2 helping to bring peace and prosperity to Japan (and also fought and died in the Korean war) so have some basis to at least acknowledging the plight of the comfort girls

I'm sorry, I don't agree. I think it's likely you imagine you're taking a kind and generous stance toward Japan, but this is the exact sort of argument strategy I have heard Japanese people who are trying to silence disagreement rather than deal with problems use. And this is exactly the kind of argument that makes emotional wounds fester and grow unbearable. The fact is that almost nobody involved in Imperial Japan's invasions of Asia and sexual enslavement of innocent civilians is involved in the pressure campaign against this statue. Very few of those people are even alive anymore. But in my many years living in Japan I have seen many of the ones who are try to talk about their experiences, and they are clearly wracked with guilt that can scarcely be described. Now, I don't want to pretend all Imperial Japanese veterans speak with one voice. Japanese people are just as diverse and complex as the rest of us. But I keep seeing in these guilty veterans a kind of quiet desperation. A lot of them want to make things right, but they just ... can't. And of course, with the death, devastation, and despair inflicted by the Imperial Japanese Army, we're talking about wrongs that cannot be undone. But the silence surrounding Japanese WWII atrocities in modern Japanese society makes any kind of reckoning with the past virtually impossible. It honestly feels sometimes like the modern Japanese rightists who weren't even born yet for WWII want to control the narrative to spare themselves the shame of admitting their country isn't always perfect, and they are totally willing to make the grandparents they "protect" bear the terrible cost of that silence. As a percentage of population, almost no one living today in Japan is guilty of what happened in WWII. But the window is fast closing on the opportunity to let go of the guilt and achieve peace. Many Japanese people today are deeply concerned with peace, and that's something I really respect about them and a part of the reason I choose to continue living here. Peace is not merely the absence of current aggression, though. There is a cynicism growing in Japan's youth, and I think a big cause of it is the massive disconnect between the past and the present and between Japan and its neighbors. There are a lot of people living in Japan today who are guilty of keeping the WWII wound raw. And as each generation between now and then grows old and dies, the hope for any cure to this disease of the soul dies with them.